Finger ring having two internal finger gripping means with diverging ends



Feb. 17, 1959 s, KRANDALL 2,873,586

FINGER RING HAVING TWO INTERNAL FINGER GRIPPING MEANS WITH DIVERGINGENDS Filed QGt. 29, 1953 IIIII- V JL'JEJEEEL' NM-lIIIIIIIIIlllllllllll'lllll g III- INVEN TOR.

A TTORAM-IJ United States Patent i FINGER RING HAVING TWO INTERNALFINGER GRIPPING MEANS WITH DIVERGING ENDS Sidney Krandall, Detroit,Mich.

Application October 29, 1953, Serial No. 389,081 1 Claim. (cl. 63-15.6)

This invention relates to a finger ring.

Finger rings are ordinarily formed with a circular finger opening. Ringsthus formed have a tendency to slip around the finger for severalreasons. In the first place, the ordinary finger is not circular incross section but generally rectangular, and when a ring is. positionedon the finger, the ring does not usually embrace the entirecircumference of the finger. It: contacts the finger at some points andis spaced therefrom at other points around its periphery. This can bereadily seen by comparing the cross section of an ordinary ring with thecross section of the finger when the ring is positioned thereon. In thesecond place, rings usually .fit loosely on the finger because theknuckle joint between the secmid and third phalanges is larger in crosssection than the cross section of the finger above this joint; The sizeof this second knuckle joint therefore in most cases determines the sizeof the ring. H

The variation in the shape of the finger as compared with the circularopening in a finger ring and the greater dimension of the second knucklejoint as compared with the portion of the finger above this joint havebeen recognized before and several attempts have been made to providefinger rings which are constructed to compensate for this difference inshape and size. In some instances such as illustrated in United StatesPatents Nos. 1,687,020

I and 1,913,463, the ring itself is fashioned with a generallyrectangular shape so that when positioned on the finger, the fingeropening, of the ring generally conforms with the cross sectional shapeof the finger. Other attempts in solving this problem have been directedalong the lines of incorporating in the ring a spring member which isarranged to yieldably decrease the effective size of the finger openingso that the ring can be passed over the knuckle joint between the secondand third phalanges and still snugly engage the finger when in theposition in which ringsare usually worn. In one form of construction,such as is shown in Patent No. 596,900, the

spring member is formed from a strip of spring metal No. 486,720, thespring member or members are formed integrally with the ring by stampingthem inwardly in the form of spring fingers from the finger-encirclingband portion of the ring. A still further construction that has beenproposed heretofore for the purpose of preventing a ring from turning onthe finger has to do with the provision of a generally rigid insertmember which is adapted to be attached to the ring after it is in theposition in which it is worn, the construction being illustrated inPatent No. 1,382,043.

A more recent construction that has been suggested is shown in Patent No2,615,314 wherein a socket is formed in the ring and a member istelescoped within the socket and urged outwardly of the socket bysprings positioned between the underside of the member and the base ofthe socket.

In my co-pending application Serial No. 228,853, I

2,873,586 Patented Feb. 17, 1959 have shown a construction forpreventing a ring from turning on the finger wherein one or more rigidmembers are integrally connected to the finger encircling portion of thering to diminish the size of the: circular opening at the desiredsection.

The present invention has to do with an. improved ring constructionwherein yieldable meansare provided for adapting the ring to the sizeand shape of the finger on which it is to be worn, and it is thereforean object of the present invention to provide a finger ring providedwith simple spring means for accommodating fingers of various sizes andshapes which effectively prevent the ring from rotating on the fingerwhen in place.

. A further object of the invention is to provide a spring adapter forrings which can be easily and permanently mounted on a conventionalfinger ring for adapting a ring of a given size to various shapes andsizes of fingers.

A further object of the invention is to provide a nonturning finger ringwhich can be fitted to the wearer's finger very readily by the" jewelerwithout mutilating the ring and without detracting from the ornamentalappearance of the ring.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the ring of this invention.

Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the ring.

Fig. 3 is a sectional view along the lines 3--3 in Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 shows the ring asit is worn on the finger.

4 Fig. 5 is a view showing the manner in which the springmember permitsthe ring to slip over the knuckle of the finger at approximately thelines 55 in Fig. 4.

Fig. 6 is a view showing the manner in which the springmember of thering engages the fleshy portions of the finger at the location 66 inFig. 4 and prevents the ring from turning on the finger.

In Fig. 1 there is illustrated a ring having a generally circular bodyportion 10 which encircles the finger and is provided with an enlargedsetting 12 at the top side thereof. The setting 12 is usually larger,that is, of

greater mass than the finger encircling portion 10; and

tating on the fingerand at the same time enabling the ring to be passedgently over the large knuckle of the .fing'er comprises a spring member14. In the embodiment shown, the spring member 14 is formed as twosimilarly shaped pieces. members. as shown is preferred, but it will beappreciated that a single spring member rather than two can be e'mployedif desired. The spring member 14 is fashioned as a segmentr of a circleand preferably ex tends circumferentially about 270'. Spring member 14is permanently secured to the inner face of the finger encircling bodyportion 10 of the ring at the central bottom portion thereof asindicated at 16.

Referring now to Fig. 2 wherein the spring 14 is shown in theuntensioned condition, it will be observed that the member 14 is securedto the ring in a position disposed symmetrically with respect to thevertical central axis of the ring with the open side of the spring, thatis, the side defined between the ends of the spring legs 18 and 20disposed toward the upper end of the ring where the setting 12 isprovided. In the untensioned condition, the spring member or members 14have a diameter substantially less than the inner diameter of the fingerencircling portion 10 of the ring. Thus, with a member 14 secured to thefinger encircling portion 10 of the ring at 16 as by silver soldering orthe like, the

The use of a pair of spring;

member 14 is tangent to the ring at this point; and the spring legs 18and 20 are generally spaced from the adjacent inner faces of the portionof the ring a progressively increasing distance in the direction of thefree ends of the spring legs 18 and 20.

Referring now to Fig. 3, it will be noted that where two spring members.14 are employed, they are soldered or otherwise secured atthe area 16.in side by side contacting relation; but these spring members preferablydiverge in a direction toward their free end. This construction isespecially desirable in relatively heavy rings as distinguished fromthin, light rings. In a heavy ring, the body encircling portion 10usually increases in Width in a direction from the. bottom side to thetop side of the ring, and the spring members 14 are disposed so as tomore orless conform to. the. increasing width of the ring. The, springmembers 14 are of relatively light weightand require. but little tensionto spread the legs 18 and 29 apart. This is desirableto provide acomfortable. rather than a binding or-pinching fit on the finger.However, to compensate for the relatively light grip with which thespring member 14 engages the finger, the spring member 14 is. providedwith serrations 24 which increase substantially: theflictionalengagement of the spring member 14. with the finger. The useof two spring members 14 as shown also enhances the holding ability ofthe light spring members. 1

In fitting a ring of the. present invention on a persons finger, a ringsize is selected such that the diameter of the finger encircling portion10 reduced by a double thickness ofthe. spring member 14 is sufiicienttopass freely overthe second knuckle jointof the finger. This isillustrated clearly in Fig. 5 which shows the extent to which the.spring member 14 is expanded when passingover the knuckle joint 25generally designated by the lines 5 45 onthe -,finger-illustrated' inFig. 4. It will beobserved that when the ring isslippedoverthis joint,spring member 14 expands to a position wherein there: is only a slightclearance '26 between the ends of the spring legs. 18 and and theadjacent inner surfaces of. the body encircling portion 10 of the ring.The diameter of the spring member 14 in an untensioned condition iscontrolled by another factor; namely, the cross sectional size. of thefinger at a point where the ring is usually worn. This section,referenced 28, is designated by, the lines 6-46 in Fig. 4, and the ringwhen positioned at this section of the finger is shown in Fig. 6. .Inthe finger illustrated, the cross section at the thinner portion 28 isless than the cross section of the knuckle at the line 5,-5. Thus whenthering is worn in its usualhposition on the finger illustrated, springmember 14 i s;expanded to adiameter greater than its diameter in anuntensioned condition (Fig. 2) but less than the diameter to which it isexpanded when passing overthe second knuckle joint (Fig. 5). If thecrosssection of the finger in the planev 6.6-were.substantially smaller thanhand, if it should happen that the cross section of the finger at theplane 6.-6 were substantially larger than the knuckle cross section atthe plane 5--5, then the body encircling portion 10, as well as thespring member 14, would have a greater diameter than shown in Fig. 2.

Thus, it will be seen that by the provision of generally circular springmembers such as shown at 14 and by arranging these spring members withinthe ring as illustrated and securing them to the ring by such simplemeans as silver soldering, a finger ring of a particular size can beadapted to finger which differ substantially in size and shape.Furthermore, I have found that by providing a substantially circular,relatively light spring member as illustrated and by permanentlyattaching the spring member to the inner face of the finger encirclingportion of the ring at the bottom side thereof and in a positiondisposed generally symmetrically with the vertical central axis of thering, the ringisheld firmly in non-rotating condition on. the fingerand, at the same time, no discomfort isexperienced bythe wearer.

I claim:

A finger ringcomprising a body portion having a generally circularfinger encircling portion provided with a setting at the top sidethereof, said finger encircling portion being generally of increasing.width i113. direction upwardly from the bottom side thereof to saidsetting, a pair of leaf spring members secured to the inner peripheryofsaid finger'encircling portion at the bottom side thereof, said springmembers being generally U- shaped with the bight portion thereof securedto the bottom portion of the ring and each spring member being providedwith a pair of arcuate spring legs extending upwardly from the bottomportion of the ring only slightly beyondthe central portion of the ring,the free ends of said spring legs of each leaf spring being spaced aparta distance greater than the radius of the ring and being spaced radiallyinwardly from the adjacent inner face portions. of the finger encirclingportion of the ring, said spring legs being relatively thin as comparedwith the finger encircling portion of the ring and having a generallyfiat inner surface, said' leaf springs being secured to the bottomsideof said finger encircling portion of the ring in side-by-siderelation and diverging in the direction of the free ends thereof, saidspringlegs lying entirely within the confines of said finger encirclingportion whereby when said ring is placed upon the wearers finger, saidspring legs tend to maintain the ring in an upright position.

References. Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS512,839 Oppenheimer Jan, 16, 1894 ,5 2, 7 B 1 1I 92.

FOREIGN PATENT S' 902 Great Britain Jan. 21-, 1885 376,142 Great BritainJuly 7, 1932

